 |
|
|
| Zydeco Music |
|
|
|
Zydeco is a type of music that evolved from an
acoustic folk idiom known as la-la, dating back to the
1920s and unique to black Creoles originally from rural
southwestern Louisiana. The modern form emerged in
Southeast Texas in the late 1940s and 1950s among
immigrants from this ethnic group, who came to cities
such as Houston and Beaumont to find employment. There
they fused old Louisiana French music traditions with
urban blues and R&B to create a distinctive sound. |
|
|
|
In zydeco the primary lead instrument is the
accordion, and the fundamental cadences come from the
polyrhythmic manipulation of hand-held metal utensils
such as spoons scraped for percussive effect against the
surface of a washboard (known in French as le frottoir).
But since the 1950s, zydeco instrumentation has included
standard drums, electric bass, electric guitar, and even
piano, organ, saxophone, and trumpet. Zydeco
singing—plaintive vocalizing in a blues style—typically
combines English and French. |
|
|
| Singer and accordionist Amédé Ardoin
(1898–ca. 1950) is generally recognized as the most
influential figure in the early development of Creole
music. This native Louisianan made seminal la-la
recordings, heavily influenced by traditional white
Cajun music played at a regular measured tempo, between
1929 and 1934. These included a session on August 8,
1934, at the Texas Hotel in San Antonio for the
Bluebird/Victor company. |
|
|
|
In subsequent years, la-la increasingly came to
highlight Afro-Caribbean rhythms, in which accents
shifted to various beats. The role of the washboard
became more pronounced, laying the trademark "chanka-chank"
foundation over which a featured accordionist would
perform. And the repertoire began to expand beyond
old-style French songs to encompass urban sounds and
more technologically advanced instruments. These
innovations occurred especially in Houston, where the
black Creole immigrant population was concentrated in
the Fifth Ward neighborhood known as Frenchtown, which
was incorporated in 1922. |
|
|
|
The origins of the word zydeco have been traced to a
French lyric that surfaced first in various Creole folk
songs in Louisiana: "les haricots sont pas salé"
(roughly, "the snapbeans are not salted"). Zydeco
derives from the first two words, "les haricots." Among
various attempts at making an English spelling
correspond to the black Creole pronunciation,
z-y-d-e-c-o eventually prevailed, under the influence of
Houston folklorist Robert Burton "Mack" McCormick. He
formalized the now-standard spelling in his
transcription of lyrics for a two-volume 1959 record
album A Treasury of Field Recordings on the 77 Records
label. McCormick originally intended for the term to
apply only to the fusion of Texas blues and Creole la-la
that he heard in Frenchtown. |
|
|
| The first two recordings to use
variants of the term zydeco to refer to a style of music
and dancing (as opposed to the original French sense
referring to a vegetable) were produced in Houston. One
was issued around 1947 on the song erroneously titled "Zolo
Go" by bluesman Sam Lightnin' Hopkins on Gold Star
Records, and the second appeared in the 1949 recording
of "Bon Ton Roula" by rhythm-and-blues performer
Clarence "Bon Ton" Garlow on Macy's Records. |
|
|
|
The key event in the movement of black Creole music
into the public venues of Houston occurred at
Irene's Café on Christmas Eve 1949, when
accordionist Willie Green played an impromptu
concert that drew large crowds and established the
zydeco sound as a form of popular entertainment.
Soon after that, the owner of Johnson's Lounge in
Frenchtown decided to cease booking big bands and to
feature Creole accordion music performed by
stalwarts such as Lonnie Mitchell, who later assumed
operation of the club. Eventually the lease reverted
to Johnson's heir, Doris McClendon, who rechristened
the lounge the Continental Zydeco Ballroom, the
city's (and probably the state's) premier venue for
the music throughout the latter half of the
twentieth century. |
|
|
|
One black Creole who moved to Texas in 1947 and
became part of the Frenchtown scene was Clifton Chenier
(1925–1987), generally acknowledged today as the "King
of Zydeco"—the musician most responsible for
popularizing the music. Among Chenier's innovations were
the employment of the large piano-key chromatic
accordion, which has a wider musical range than the
traditional diatonic instrument, and the invention of
the modern washboard vest, which expanded the musical
possibilities for percussion beyond the limitations of
the previously hand-held household utensil. In 1964 at
the Gold Star Studio in Houston, Chenier recorded the
classic song "Zydeco Sont Pas Salé," in which the
producer abandoned the French phrase les haricots for
the potent new word. |
|
|
| Since then, with Southwest
Louisiana, Southeast Texas has remained a hotbed of
zydeco culture—home to recording and touring artists
such as Chenier, Wilfred Chevis, Step Rideau, Brian
Terry, Cedric Watson, Corey Ledet, and The Zydeco Dots.
Contemporary zydeco has continued to evolve,
incorporating progressive elements of various styles of
popular music, especially including rock and hip-hop.
Zyde-rap, the fusion of zydeco and rap, gained momentum
in the 1990s and for a time was a dominant trend for
young bands. In the early 2000s, however, a number of
young artists took a neo-traditionalist approach to
zydeco and performed old songs in the French language. |
|
|
|
In 2007 the National Academy of Recording Arts and
Sciences recognized zydeco as an acknowledged music
genre and established a new category for its Grammy
awards—Best Zydeco or Cajun Music Album. Across Texas,
especially in the southeast region, a number of
festivals featured zydeco, including the Solo Zydeco
Festival in Humble and the Creole Heritage Zydeco &
Crawfish Festival in Baytown in 2011. |
|
|
|
Go To Top
Of Page! |
|
|
|
